I have a tremendous amount of affection for the Fox sitcom, Raising Hope, but the Internet doesn’t always seem to share that appreciation. The ratings for the show are modest, good enough to stay on the air for three seasons, but not good enough to avoid looking down the barrel of cancellation every year (as it will likely do again this Spring). It features one of the most loving families on television, Burt and Virginia Chance (Garett Dillahunt and Martha Plimpton), who are basically the white-trash versions of Coach and Mrs. Taylor. They are amazing. Lucas Neff plays their soft-hearted but somewhat dim-witted son, Jimmy Chance, who is left to raise a his baby, Hope, after he impregnates a serial killer who is jailed, electrocuted, ran over by a bus, and later, locked away by her father in her old room.

What I love about the show, besides the earnest affection all the characters seem to have for one another (seriously, Raising Hope is the least cynical sitcom on television) is how effortlessly clever the show manages to be. The pop-culture references aren’t as aggressive as, say, Happy Endings, the humor isn’t as irreverent as Arrested Development, and the self-referential jokes aren’t as wink wink as Community. The jokes can often be sly, but they also work on a superficial level.

There’s no way to catalogue all the best jokes from Raising Hope, but just to show my appreciation for the sitcom, and hopefully to encourage some of you who haven’t yet to check it out, here’s some of my favorite recent inside jokes and gags from the show.

This was from last night’s show, and I loved it.

Spielberg, of course, wrote Goonies.

There was also a plotline involving Burt pitching his landscape ideas to a bunch of television executives, but ultimately deciding against working for them because they didn’t respect his vision. Before he walked away, he did this:

Raising Hope’s showrunner Greg Garcia also, of course, created My Name Is Earl. Everyone from My Name Is Earl has appeared on Raising Hope at some point, although Ethan Suplee appears most frequently.

Garcia also makes the occasional sly reference to Earl or includes something like this:

Hickey was the name of Jason Lee’s character. Garcia also created Yes Dear, and it took me a moment to realize last night that the couple that had discovered Burt and Virginia’s sex tape was the couple from Yes Dear.

They even made a reference to the other couple from Yes Dear. Garcia is also fond of subverting tropes. For instance, I think the show’s Cousin Oliver (a character introduced in the pilot who then disappears) was by design because Cousin Mike — who disappeared after the pilot — showed up in a flashback once to mention that his greatest fear is “Dying. Being there one day and gone the next, completely forgotten.” (Mike would also appear in a later episode in the present timeline to explain his disappearance).

Virginia has a penchant for delivering the best malapropisms.

Raising Hope also loves to make reference to other shows.

And make fun of other celebrities in straight-up fashion.

Oh, and Burt wears the best T-Shirts.

One of my favorite gags was the casting of Christopher Lloyd as a banker with an obsession with DeLoreans. And yes, there was a “Great Scott!” mention in the episode.

And if any of that appeals to you, Shannon Woodward ought to seal the deal.

The biggest revelation in this show for me is Garret Dillahunt. Before this, I always thought of him as that guy who always plays “Haunted Deputy #2″ in everything. I never imagined he could do comedy like this.

Thank you! I love this show and always make a point to watch it every week. It’s much more clever than I think anyone is giving it credit for and also just a really fun show. Garrett Dillahunt is just fantastic as well.

I’m very glad Shannon Woodward let her hair grow back out. I remember it being very short at the beginning of season 2 and really not enjoying it. I also enjoy that she’s supposed to be the unattainably hot girl but she’s arguably a bigger weirdo than anyone in the Chance family, not unlike Alex on Happy Endings.

This is one of those shows that I watch whenever I find it on TV. Because I know that it will be funny and heartwarming, and is light enough on continuity that I won’t be lost. And I also still find it weird to see Cromartie being a nice and loving family man.

Great show. I’ve actually stuck with this longer than I did with My Name Is Earl, They seem to have found a good balance between genuine and outlandish and have yet to go off the rails like Earl did (save that meh Nancy Grace fiasco last season).

That said, in my dreams, there is a spin-off where Burt Chance and Bobby Cobb from Cougar Town own and operate a fishing boat.

Look, I really loved this show the first two seasons, but as soon as they brought Bijou Phillips back from the dead (and not even for the last time, ugh), it started to go off the rails for me. I’m still watching it, but it’s far from essential viewing for me anymore. This week, there was a line, “Flies carry tons of germs and diseases, that’s why there’s a no-fly zone over the White House.” I groaned, and Mrs. Boom Boom said, “See, a line that bad would have never made it onto the show before.”

It’s not just the actors from My Name is Earl, this takes place in the next town over from Camden. The daytime hooker and the hopping one legged lady are in both, and the news on Raising Hope talking about the local man who won the lottery and decided to do good deeds then the TV cutting off just before they say what happened to him.

RIght? Betty White hasn’t really done anything of note really since Golden Girls, and even then she was the worst character on that show. She’s just casted because it’s just become the thing to do, not because she’s all that great. Ugh, I hate Betty.

One of my favorite shows, I like how they’ve been able to focus on child raising stories while also throwing in the ocassional crude joke. The Middle and Raising Hope show that “poor” people can be funny as well

I think I made it a full season, maybe a season and a half on this one. I honestly can’t remember, because it’s just not remarkable. It suffers from being mundanely sufficient. It’s certainly not bad, but it’s never particularly great either. Hell, maybe it got better.

I have loved this show since the first episode and the little girl who plays Hope is adorable! I love the references to other shows and pop culture and when Virgina mispronounces words. It is a great, funny show with a lot of heart.

I like Raising Hope quite a bit, but once again Dustin couldn’t write an accurate post if his life depended on it.

First and foremost, It’s pop culture references actually tend to be more blatant and easily recognizable than any other show currently doing that type of thing.

Second, it’s not looking down the barrel of cancellation. It does just fine in the ratings and can survive for at least another few years just doing it’s thing. Ratings are so fucked for network these days that just having an average audience is enough to get renewed.

We just started watching this, and now we’re catching up on the old stuff – it was always funny when I’d have it on but not appointment viewing. Now we watch it weekly and enjoy it quite a bit. I’m really happy to see it on here.

For me it’s because while it’s a great show and I enjoy it. It’s doesn’t have that draw that makes you wait for the next episode it’s a show you can wait awhile and then catch up on it and you love it because it’s a great show. it’s on netflix so I am sure more and more people will be getting into the show.